Millenials Drive Commercial Real Estate Market Growth

Posted on July 1, 2014

Millenials who are moving out of their parents’ homes are driving commercial real estate market growth.

According to Mitch Roschelle, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) real estate advisory practice head and co-founder, millenials are leaving their parents’ humble abode to move to urban centers where employment is bountiful.

“Millenials want to go where the jobs are. They’re not necessarily tied to places where they grew up, but are tied to where the economies are booming,” said Roschelle in a Fox Business interview.

Roschelle noted that these millenials tend to rent apartments near their places of work, than buy new properties. They are also wary of increasing their student debt and would rather opt to rent, he added.

Roschelle also said that these millenials are moving to smaller urban centers in Texas, where most tech hubs are based.

Cities where most millennial population growth has been found include Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina; Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio in Texas; Phoenix, Arizona and Denver, Colorado.

Data from the National Association of Home Builders showed that that rent has increased by three percent in “rent-heavy” cities such as San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle and Boston, CNN Money reported.

It added that new rental apartment constructions have risen by 56 percent since 2011.

Millenials currently make up 20 percent of the U.S. population. Some 22.8 percent of millenials are based in major urban cities such as Seattle; 22 percent in San Francisco; and 23. 9 percent are based in New York City, Fox Business reported.

Pew Research stated that an estimated 11 million graduates lived with a parent two years ago.

Homeownership was down to 36 percent in the first quarter of 2014 from 43 percent in 2005 for millenials under 35 years old, data from the Census also showed according to CNN Money.

But while homeownership was down among millenials, this trend is bound to change as the generation grows up, marries and forms new household, according to a research conducted by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

The research revealed that around 24 million new household will be formed by 2025.

As demand for commercial real estate increase among millenials, businesses and individual realtors could benefit from new technologies in showing off new properties for lease. An interesting development in this sector is the launch of property virtual tour programs like the version offered by RealBiz Media (OTC: RBIZ).

RealBiz Media’s Virtual Tour program basically allows realtors to create virtual tours and YouTube videos on its platform that can be easily shared through social media pages. Virtual Tour is optimized for streaming on HTML 5 and mobile devices.

Realtors and agents can also create marketing materials such as professional flyers, ePostcards, QRCodes and sellers reports through the platform.

RealBiz Media is also known for Nestbuilder, a marketing platform and coaching site for real estate agents. Over 350,000 real agents in the United State are currently using Nestbuilder, the company’s website stated.